


The Woman Who Asked

by britween1232



Series: The Hybrid [1]
Category: Clara Oswald - Fandom, Doctor Who, Missy (The Master), Twelfth Doctor - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, I'm basically rewriting seasons 9 and 10 OKAY??, Non-Canon Relationship, Non-Canonical Character Death, Overprotective, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 04:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16674826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/britween1232/pseuds/britween1232
Summary: Keeping his vow to the Doctor, Caelius has decided to stay on Earth with Missy as acting guardians of Time Lord-Human hybrid Wilhelmina Amie Rose until the Doctor can return for his daughter himself. But three years later, when their contract is set to expire, the Doctor still hasn't showed.Concerned for her safety but weary of the danger they will put her in the longer they stay, Missy and Caelius leave Wilhelmina on Earth, placing her into a lacking local foster care system where she remains until adulthood.Years later, Wilhelmina, now going by Bill, while working as a dining lady at St. Luke's catches the  eye of a certain Time Lord, setting the two strangers off on a fresh set of heartache, revelations and adventures.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to just give you the prologue instead of a sneak peek. I don’t think you mind, though!

Big hands with skin that possesses an iridescence similar to that of glittering fish scales reach down into the crib to retrieve the whimpering infant girl inside, her tiny hands and arms already outstretched with anticipation.

"Little one," Caelius greets with sleep still in his voice, managing a small smile for the little girl who has stopped crying now that someone is paying attention to her. Bright brown eyes stare directly back into the pitch black irises of the creature that cradles her in his arms. "You called?"

The image of a warm bottle enters his mind almost immediately and he smirks, saying, "Didn't Mistress feed you before went to bed?"

There's a small sound of protest that emanates from somewhere deep within the chest of the little girl and Caelius laughs, bouncing Wilhelmina on his hip, which stops her from growling.

"That's a new trick," he observes, starting towards the kitchen. The three of them have been in this house together long enough that he's memorized every pathway and corner, every turn. Every creak or groan in the floor is now avoided as he expertly picks his way through the corridors of the cottage until they reach the kitchen.

"Let's make a deal, you and I, eh?" Caelius murmurs into Bill's curly hair as she reaches to touch her hand to his face, pulling softly at his cheek to let him know she's listening. 

"I plan to take you far away tonight," he whispered lowly to the little girl, adjusting her pajamas as his eyes glanced over her worriedly. "Missy's drawing far too much attention to us, to you. It's not safe here anymore."

"Well, ‘safe’ is a matter of opinion, isn't it?"

Caelius swore as the kitchen light switch was flipped on, revealing none other than the lunatic sadist he'd been forced to raise this child with. Missy loitered near the doorway in a purple stain robe and pajamas to match, staring at the two of them with narrowed eyes as she tied her bed hair into a loose ponytail.

"Why wasn't I invited to this party?" She drawled, her eyes shifting from Bill to Caelius. "Not very inclusive, is it? Not when we’re trying to foster a healthy environment of acceptance and equality."

Caelius' jaw jumped when Bill started straining against his grip, babbling insistently as she reached for Missy. He tightened his hold on her and and took a step backwards.

"You've been teaching her advanced telepathy?" He said, looking at Bill with even more concern. "Did she call you just now?"

"Of course, she did, _mermaid_ ," Missy spits menacingly, walking over to take Bill from Caelius' arms. Caelius hesitated, but knew a screaming infant was the last thing he wanted at the moment, cautiously handing over the baby.

"She's remarkably bright, you know," Missy continued as she tucked an errant curl behind Bill's ear. "Picked it up so easily, just imagine how well she'll do when it comes to astrophysics."

Bill grinned as she went into Missy's embrace, practically glowing when the psychopath started kissing her cheeks, blowing raspberries into her chest until the little girl was nothing but a fit of giggling laughter. 

"She doesn't know how dangerous you are, yet," Caelius said, making Missy bristle as she cradled Bill closer to her body, almost like she was attempting to shield the girl from his words. "You think handing her sweets and making her laugh will erase the amount of blood on your hands, but it will not."

"Oh, please, Mr. I Like To Open People Up To See What's Inside." Missy retorted, retrieving the bottle that Bill had been asking for from the refrigerator to warm it. "You think, just like the Doctor, that we're not the same. But there's _nothing_ that separates you and I—those are facts, Caelius. Ones you'd be wise not to forget."

"We _are_ different in _some_ aspects," Caelius countered, taking the bottle from the microwave when the device started to beep. "I may have singular tastes, but at least I possess a decent amount of self-control. Your unchecked ambitions will get us all killEd."

Missy rolled her eyes before trying to blink the boredom out of them. For her, Caelius could be such an absolute square sometimes. "The sky isn't falling, dearie, it's just a bit of rain."

"You're referring to your recent attempts to form an alliance with the Dalek's as 'rain'?" Asked the High Duke, his voice disbelieving. "If that is the case, Mistress, surely your 'rain' will lead to floods."

With Bill thoroughly sated due to the bottle in her small hands, Missy quietly rocked her back and forth in her arms, knowing it would not be long before the child's eyelids dropped and then closed for the remainder of the night. Despite herself, she smiled down at Bill, running a purple finger nail around the perimeter of the girl's round, chubby face adoringly.

"Do you know," Missy started softly, finally looking up at her co-parent, "I had the most startling revelation the other day while playing peek-a-boo, of all things. Do you want to know what it was?"

"I'm sure you'll tell me anyway," Caelius snapped, unsure of whether or not the sincerity in her voice was truly there.

"Alone, you and I will _never_ be enough to keep her safe," Missy explained, a rueful smile playing on her lips as she shrugged. "We're the skeleton crew, and our job is more hiding than it is actually fighting or defending. We need allies."

Caelius scoffed. "Are you seriously insinuating that a Dalek could be an ally to anything other than its own kind?"

"Yes." Missy's eyes glinted knowingly. "That's exactly what I'm insinuating."


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an effort to put their nosy neighbors at bay, Caelus and Missy hatch a plan that they end up mutually regretting. Young Bill is decidedly opinionated about the human beings she interacts with so little. We finally get to see what the Doctor has been up to all this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember the fan theory that the Doctor is only pretending to forget Clara in the diner? That theory is canon in my story!

_Two Years Later_

"This is absolutely  _idiotic_."

"It was your idea." Caelius snaps, more than a little irritated my Missy's low grumbling complaints. "It wasn't idiotic to you then."

"Yes, well, I'd just demolished an entire Weeblian empire with only a paper clip and a jammy dodger," Missy huffs as they walk up the stairs and into the courthouse. "I was on my version of a sugar high—nothing I was saying made any logical sense!"

"On the contrary," Caelius said, adjusting the white bow tie he was wearing so it didn't feel so much like a tightening noose around his neck. "One more year remains until the Doctor's return, and our conservative neighbors are suspicious of us enough as it is. Perhaps this will abate their curiosity."

Missy scowled down at the white pantsuit she was wearing, feeling utterly ridiculous. "I've only been married twice. Nearly killed the first one and the second ran off."

"Oh?" Caelius feigned interest. "The second husband came to his senses and left you?"

"No," Came Missy's acidic retort. "My  _wife_  came to  _her_  senses and left me."

It's difficult for Caelius to fight his broad smile, so he chooses instead to look down at the young girl gripping his hand. "Alright down there?"

Bill starts at the sound of his voice. Enraptured by the world she is rarely ever allowed to explore alone, she had been so caught up in the sights around her that she had barely noticed her adoptive parents' bickering. But now that she's been interrupted, she turns to look up at Caelius with a familiar inquisitive frown and a question on her full lips.

"They're not very bright, are they?" Bill articulated perfectly in her typically precocious fashion. She looked around again, spotting a group of kids a little older than her, maybe four or five. "All they think and talk about is cartoons on the telly and dolls they left at home."

Missy's head poked around from the other side of Caelius' shoulder. "Trust me, pet. It only gets worse as they age."

Bill's entire face fell as she looked to Caelius, her brown eyes impossibly large. Just like her mother's used to be. "Is that true, Cae?"

Bending to hoist the child up and into his arms, Caelius smiled softly. "Human beings are different than you are--than  _we_  are. They're just starting out, while our kinds have had a millennium to sort themselves out."

"And that's what makes them so stupid?" Bill asked, her eyes flitting back and forth between Missy and Caelius as she tried to understand.

Missy answered 'absolutely' at the same time Caelius said a vehement 'no'. Both briefly exchanged glares before Missy amended, "Not all human beings. Take Hilter for instance—"

"Who's Hilter?" Bill's confusion was coming to a head.

"I thought we agreed  _not_  to speak to her about this planet's long lineage of sociopaths," Caelius whispered to his co-parent harshly. "We agreed to leave that part of her education to the Doctor."

Bill's ears perked up minutely at the mention of the man called 'Doctor'. While it had never been explained to her who exactly he was, Bill knew he was a man of great importance not only to her strange family unit but to the universe at large. He was the man in the bedtime stories Cae and Missy would tell her as she drifted off to sleep, and he was the man that would meet her in her dreams.

 _One more year, they promised,_ Bill thought with excitement bubbling in her belly.  _And I'll get to meet the Doctor, too._

_-_

"And you're sure this is safe?"

The Doctor knelt down before the exposed wires of the space shuttle's control panel, his long fingers hovering over the fried circuitry as he tried to piece together a plan that wouldn't end with the ship and all its passengers going up in flames.

"No," the Doctor stated, turning to look over his shoulder at the young lad that had all but glued himself to the Doctor's side when things started going pear-shaped. Vaguely taking into account the boy's frightened face, the Doctor forced a tight smile to his lips.

"But I'm the best shot you've got at getting off this thing alive and I could use a bit of quiet right now."

The boy's shoulders slouched as he murmured an apology and he went off to the other side of the flight deck. The Doctor, already fiddling with the wires, was too preoccupied to watch him go or notice the dejection in his eyes.

_Wasn't very nice of you._

The Doctor barely jumped at the sound of her voice anymore. In fact, he welcomed it, the rigid lines in his back and shoulders melting away as he let out a single, bated breath. He hadn't heard from her in what had to have been weeks, but now, the Doctor looked up to see her casually leaning up against a charred walled of the ship. But instead of greeting her with a happy smile, he glared.

"I'm busy," he whispered, but Clara only grinned.

 _Not too busy for me_ , she winked before turning to nod in the direction of the boy behind him.  _Not too busy for him, either_ _, apparently. Still out looking for replacements, Doctor?_

"I don't even know him!" The Doctor harshly whispered, eyes ablaze.

 _Don't remember that ever stopping you,_ Clara's teeth gleamed as she grinned.  _You like strays. Remember?_

She wasn't there, of course. But this was easier, the pretending. So much easier.

"These people are gonna die if I don't figure out a way to land this thing without a steering wheel," the Doctor breathed.

Funny. He'd spent four and a half billion years in the confession dial just to go back to the quarter of a second before the raven took Clara's life. Just to ensure he'd be able to keep her heart beating a little while longer.  And even that hadn't worked. She still wasn't here.

In fact, after that all-too-painful moment in the diner—when he realized he could never love Clara and be the Doctor at the same time— _this_  was what she became for him. A figment, a torture? He didn't know which, and never wanted to decide. If this was all she could be for him now, a ghost, then so be it. He had studied and learned her so well that he had wholly recreated her. Memories of her voice, mannerisms, and eccentricities manifested in the form of a phantom that could know his next move before he'd even decided to make it.

He owed Clara this much, at least, after all the things he had done. He had forced her to forget her— _their_ — own child, a child he realized he could scarcely look at without seeing its mother's big brown eyes staring back at him. 

The Doctor blinked down at the wires helplessly, his mouth suddenly sour and bitter. "I need to focus. So, please, go. I'll find you later."

She gave him one last look, a dash of concern in her irises before she completely disappeared, and the Doctor couldn't help but feel like he was once again a drowning man, miles from shore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, y'all!!! 
> 
> Sorry I'm so late with posting this, but I had to get this chapter *just* right, and that's why it's so short. I still don't know if I've done it justice. Next chapter is all about the Doctor, so you have that to look forward to!!

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter publish date is still TBD, but in the meantime, tell me what you thought of this! I’m hoping it’ll be a lot lighter in the areas where The Hybrid was so dark.


End file.
